Hallad turned, wailing, and ran up the bank and into the forest; and the four comrades were left to face it together.
CHAPTER XXI
IN WHICH ALREK SWORD-BEARER FACES DEATH
Brand lay on the ground, shaking with great sobs; and Gard squatted, half sitting, half kneeling, his huge hand crushing to powder the shells he had picked up without knowing what he did. It spoke much for the lessons the two had learned that neither offered plans of rebellion or suggested escaping through the loophole of a trick. Dully, the Ugly One spoke to Alrek Sword-Bearer, where he stood as though turned to stone.
"Alrek, say that the lie did not make it any worse for you. Let me have that to remember."
Alrek answered without turning his eyes from the sullen water, wrinkled now with rain-drops: "It did not make it any worse for me.... I did you wrong in believing you guilty."
"Why was this so? If only we could have got away on the ship, it is not likely that you would ever have found it out," Brand sobbed passionately.
"I wish that I might have had one voyage on The Fire," Alrek said slowly. "More than anything else I like to stand on a ship when the wind is blowing under her wings, and feel how I am being carried forward into happenings of interest. I thought I had many such voyages before me, and that I should accomplish some things which the saga-men would think worth talking about. And I believed that I should die in a manner to leave honor behind me. Never did I guess in the deepest hiding-place of my mind that I should be put to death for causing the defeat of my chief—" His voice broke in uncontrollable revolt. "I can not believe that I was such a madman! It must be as he says, that the Huntsman laid a spell upon me. I can not believe that I would so lose my sense!"